User blog:SkyAzurePhoenix/H Episode 27 Analysis
Welp, accidentally pressed enter. Need to stop doing that. Guess I'm obligated to do this now. The game that takes place in H Episode 27 is between Suzuha Amanosuzu and Noboru Kodo, an uncommon matchup between Magic World and Dungeon World. This episode debuted the new 《Knight》 archetype along with a new Great Spell: Auld Lang Syne. Now, at first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary. Suzuha astonishes everyone by resetting her life to 10, only to be blown away by Noboru's 12 damage impact. However, there is a problem. How exactly did the anime get to that point? If you closely follow the actions animated in the show, you'll notice that the math does not add up. The discussions I had with others at the time of airing forced a question: how did Suzuha legally cast Great Spell, Auld Lang Syne? As far as rulings go, discarding your entire hand from the spell's Cost is not optional. This means Suzuha needed at least one additional card in her hand in order to cast Auld Lang Syne which, while arguably demonstrated in the anime, still doesn't solve the problem of how the anime came to that point. This dilemma, compounded with other problems - how Noboru's field was cleared or how Suzuha had a full field at the conclusion of her Auld Lang Syne turn - makes this battle tricky to figure out. After all, the anime, ignoring certain animation liberties, accurately portrays the real life gameplay, right? Well, this episode is no exception to that rule. Everything shown is legal, and the available cards can be used to construct what specifically happened. Of course, keep in mind that the following construction is unofficial. Having said that, all the numbers add up and, thus, will prove to be an adequate explanation as to how Suzuha legally cast Auld Lang Syne. Crack out your Microsoft Excel. Let's begin. If it wasn't obvious, Suzuha gets the first turn. (For convenience, the numbers at the end of each turn will follow this format: Deck/Drop Zone/Life/Gauge/Hand.) Suzuha's Turn (1st turn) *Charge and Draw! *Cast! "Nice one!"! *Cast! "Key of Solomon, First Volume"! *Call! "Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" to the center! *"Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" attack the fighter! *Noboru takes 2 damage. *"Glass Miracle"! *End of move. Will and his actions are easily provable due to the second turn. He gets Penetrated by El Quixote and Noboru; and Noboru starts his turn with 8 life. The two spells cast beforehand, though, cannot be proven now. However, these will be necessary for later. Suzuha: 36/4/10/3/6 Noboru: 42/0/8/2/6 Noboru's Turn (2nd turn) *Draw! *Charge and Draw! *Call! "Dragon Wing Knight, Dragon Gard" to the left! *Buddy Call! "Knight of Glory, El Quixote" to the right! *Equip! "Flash Lance, Blitz Tiger"! *"Knight of Glory, El Quixote" and "Flash Lance, Blitz Tiger" link attack the center! *"Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" is destroyed! * ! Suzuha takes 2 and 1 damage. *"Dragon Wing Knight, Dragon Gard" attack the fighter! *Suzuha takes 2 damage. Self-explanatory. Shown in the anime in every step. No problem. Suzuha: 36/4/5/3/6 Noboru: 39/2/9/2/4 Suzuha's Turn (3rd turn) *Draw! *Charge and Draw! *Cast! "Nice one!"! *Cast! "Key of Solomon, First Volume"! *Cast! "Key of Solomon, Second Volume"! *Call! "Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" to the right! *Call! "Magic Knight of Light, Licht" to the center! *Call! "Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" to the left! *Cast! "Kosher"! * ! "Dragon Wing Knight, Dragon Gard" to the center! *"Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" attack the center! *"Dragon Wing Knight, Dragon Gard" is destroyed! *"Magic Knight of Light, Licht" attack the fighter! *Noboru takes 1 damage. *"Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" attack the fighter! * Cast! "Quiescence of Cassiade"! *End of move. The only thing the anime gives us is the Attack Phase. All of the main phase spells are largely not provable at this point, though Key of Solomon, Second Volume address how Suzuha got to 6 life from 5. Once again, the plethora of spells being cast by Suzuha will make sense soon. As a small note, these chain of events coincide with Suzuha's hand size (4) as seen in the anime. Suzuha: 27/9/6/6/4 Noboru: 39/4/8/2/3 Noboru's Turn (4th turn) *Draw! *Charge and Draw! *Equip! "Savage Lance, Eisen Tiger"! *Call! "Revolution Knight, Rebellious" to the left! *"Magician of Glass, Will Glassart" and "Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" are destroyed! *"Knight of Glory, El Quixote" and "Flash Lance, Blitz Tiger" link attack the center! *"Magic Knight of Light, Licht" is destroyed! * ! Suzuha takes 2 and 1 damage. *"Savage Lance, Eisen Tiger" attack the fighter! * Cast! "Solomon's Shield"! *"Revolution Knight, Rebellious" attack the fighter! *Suzuha takes 2 damage. *End of move. If it wasn't obvious by now, Noboru's turns need little explanation. After all, the anime knows where all the new and interesting action is. Everything in this turn is animated besides Rebellious' attack (an obvious move that explains Suzuha's life total before Auld Lang Syne). Suzuha: 27/9/6/6/4 Noboru: 36/5/7/3/2 Suzuha's Turn (5th turn) *Draw! *Charge and Draw! *Cast! "Nice one!"! *Cast! "Key of Solomon, First Volume"! *Cast! "Power Ray Maximum"! *"Knight of Glory, El Quixote" and "Revolution Knight, Rebellious" are destroyed! *Call! "Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" to the center! *Cast! "Great Spell, Auld Lang Syne"! ("Never Say Never" put into hand.) *Cast! "Never Say Never"! *Buddy Call! "Center of the World, Mary Sue" to the right! ("Chillax!" is put into hand.) *Call! "Artificial Angel, Virginie Casta" to the left! *"Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" attack the fighter! *Noboru takes 1 damage. *"Center of the World, Mary Sue" attack the fighter! *Noboru takes 2 damage. *"Artificial Angel, Virginie Casta" attack the fighter! ! *Noboru takes 1 and 1 damage. *End of move. This is the climax here. All of that incremental gauge-gaining from the Nice one!-Key of Solomon, First Volume combination and others pays off here as well as answers the key question of how Auld Lang Syne was cast. First off, Noboru's field is gone by the next turn, so an adequate answer needs to be given. (No sign is given that he called over his own monsters.) Attacks aren't allowed since all possible critical was dedicated to Noboru's face. Power Ray Maximum answers this. Next, Suzuha's field needs to be addressed. Dunkelheit, Mary Sue, and Virginie Casta are present, and their abilities restrict the order in which they can be played. This ordering solves this. (Buddy Calling after Auld Lang Syne also explains her 11 life later on in the animation.) Finally, Suzuha needs a lot of gauge to pay for all this while also being set at 6 gauge (as animated) for Auld Lang Syne. The aforementioned incremental gauge-gaining helps out here, as a total of 9 gauge was needed for the entire scenario plus an additional gauge for the future casting of Chillax!. The gauge payouts leading up to Auld Lang Syne also help fulfill the Wizard drop zone requirement. Out of the 19 cards in her drop zone at the time before Auld Lang Syne, 4 of them were Wizards (3 unique) and 6 were unknown. These 6 unknown cards can be easily manipulated by the fight directors to fulfill the Wizard requirement. This solves the main problem, but for completeness's sake, let's do the last turn. Suzuha: 38/5/11/1/1 Noboru: 36/7/2/3/2 Noboru's Turn (Final turn) *Draw! *Charge and Draw! *Call! "Knight of Glory, El Quixote" to the right! *Call! "Purge Knight, Vlad Dracula" to the left! *"Knight of Glory, El Quixote" and "Flash Lance, Blitz Tiger" link attack the center! *"Magic Knight of Darkness, Dunkelheit" is destroyed! * ! Suzuha takes 2 and 1 damage. *"Purge Knight, Vlad Dracula" attack the fighter! * Cast! "Chillax!"! *Final Phase! Cast! "Full Strash Formation"! *Suzuha takes 12 damage! *Game over. Winner: Noboru Kodo! And thus, everything adds up. These events even fulfill Vlad's ability. Suzuha: 38/8/0/0/0 Noboru: 32/13/2/1/0 Conclusion *exasperated sigh* QED. I now have much more respect for those who take the time to do these long posts. (If you're wondering, yes, I had this in Excel already. I have no life - or at the very least, am heavily invested in the niches of this hobby.) As an aside, this shows how animators cut down fights that, if animated in its entirety, would be way too long to fit any meaningful dialogue or plot progression alongside of. However, it also shows the cleverness of the animators in them giving us enough information to prove the fight's legality. Thus, the tiger Penetrated the princess. The end. Category:Blog posts